// -*- mode:doc; -*-

Location of downloaded packages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The various tarballs that are downloaded by Buildroot are all stored in
+DL_DIR+, which by default is the +dl+ directory. If you want
to keep a complete version of Buildroot which is known to be working
with the associated tarballs, you can make a copy of this directory.
This will allow you to regenerate the toolchain and the target filesystem
with exactly the same versions.

If you maintain several Buildroot trees, it might be better to have a
shared download location. This can be accessed by creating a symbolic
link from the +dl+ directory to the shared download location:

-----------------
 $ ln -s <shared download location> dl
-----------------

Another way of accessing a shared download location is to create the
+BUILDROOT_DL_DIR+ environment variable.  If this is set, then the
value of DL_DIR in the project is overridden. The following line
should be added to +<~/.bashrc>+.

-----------------
 $ export BUILDROOT_DL_DIR <shared download location>
-----------------

The download location can also be set in the +.config+ file, with the
+BR2_DL_DIR+ option. This value is overridden by the +BUILDROOT_DL_DIR+
environment variable.
